Allstate

Buckle up if you live in Baltimore-DC area

(Newser) -
Maybe they should call it the Seatbeltway: Drivers in the Washington, DC-Baltimore area are the country's worst, according to Allstate Insurance's annual report ranking cities with best and worst drivers. Washington was the worst, just edging out Baltimore. One pundit speaking to US News explained DC's last place ranking by...
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'Mental fitness' software improves reaction time, peripheral vision

(Newser) -
An experiment by Allstate Insurance and a San Francisco software startup that aims to use computer games to improve the mental health of all ages is getting good reviews, the Chronicle reports, including from one local who says improved reaction time and peripheral vision saved him from an accident. “...
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(Newser) -
Now that the banks' stress tests are done, it's on to the insurance industry. The Treasury Department said today it will give TARP funds to the nation's biggest life insurers, the Washington Post reports. Hartford Financial has been given preliminary approval to receive $3.4 billion, and as-yet unspecified amounts...
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Nervousness builds ahead of January job report

(Newser) -
Widespread layoffs and poor housing data spurred a sell-off in stocks that saw the Dow give back yesterday’s gains and more, MarketWatch reports. Weekly jobless claims rose 159,000 and new layoffs were announced at Allstate and Eastman Kodak, stoking fear ahead of next Friday’s January employment report....
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Jobless Americans can't afford insurance

(Newser) -
As the unemployment rate climbs, so, too, does the number of drivers letting their car insurance lapse, the Wall Street Journal reports. One industry group says several hundred thousand drivers dropped their insurance in the last year alone. A study two years ago pegged the percentage of uninsured drivers at...
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Liddy will sell some assets to pay Feds

(Newser) -
The new CEO of beleaguered giant American Insurance Group plans to trim the company, selling some assets to raise capital and pay back the government following its $85 billion bailout, reports the Wall Street Journal. "There will be a company at the end of this," vowed Edward Liddy,...
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Residents wreck once every 14.6 years; DC worst at 5.4 years

(Newser) -
Sioux Falls, SD, is the safest US city to drive in for the third year in a row, according to an insurance study. Allstate found that Sioux Falls drivers average an accident only once every 14.6 years, compared to a national average of once every 10, the AP reports....
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